THIS is a fascinating report on 100 years of Christianity on Earth, from 1910 to 2010, released in DEZ 2011 by the Pew Research Center / Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. See more on religion (especially Christianity) in the U.S. and around the world at at The Great Debate of Our Season & ORIGINAL INTENT, GOD AND COUNTRY from MOTHER JONES DEZ2005 updated 21APR12
http://bucknacktssordidtawdryblog.blogspot.com/p/original-intent-god-and-country-from.html /
5 Serious Questions I Have For Christians Who Support Donald Trump /
Anti-Semitism Among Refugees a Quandary for Germany 3JUN16 /
Evangelical Christians are selling out faith for politics & Trump peddles religious ignorance & Hillary Clinton: Speaking to Methodist women feels like a ‘homecoming’ 23&22JUN16 & Hillary Clinton: Speaking to Methodist women feels like a ‘homecoming’ 26APR16 /
Trump Defends School Prayer. Critics Say He's Got It All Wrong 16JAN20 /
Billy Graham Warned Against Mixing Politics And Religion 1FEB18 /
Here’s the Best Article Ever on the Fact that Ted Cruz is Literally the First Openly Reconstructionist/Theocracy Candidate to Run for President & Ted Cruz’s campaign is fueled by a dominionist vision for America (COMMENTARY) 19&4FEB16 /5 Serious Questions I Have For Christians Who Support Donald Trump /
Anti-Semitism Among Refugees a Quandary for Germany 3JUN16 /
Evangelical Christians are selling out faith for politics & Trump peddles religious ignorance & Hillary Clinton: Speaking to Methodist women feels like a ‘homecoming’ 23&22JUN16 & Hillary Clinton: Speaking to Methodist women feels like a ‘homecoming’ 26APR16 /
SOJOURNERS / SOJO ARCHIVE UPDATED 9OKT14
SOJOMAIL 9OKT14 EBOLA, LEFT BEHIND, BLESSINGS, FEMALE ANTIHEROES,
SANCTUARY / 1OKT14 THE BIG LIE, GRACE, FAITH, CHRISTIANITY, DEFINITIONS /
17JAN13 GUN CONTROL, GUN VIOLENCE & THE NRA / 1NOV12 2012 US
ELECTIONS, POLITICS AND RELIGION / 4OKT12 PRES DEBATES /OBAMA &
ROMNEY ON POVERTY 13SEP12 / POLITICS OF US 9AUG12 /CROSSING THE RACIAL
DIVIDE 19APR12 / RYAN BUDGET 29MAR12 / BLACK & WHITE EVANGELICALS
& FRANKLIN GRAHAM 22MAR12 / 1MAR12 / 16FEB12 / 10NOV11 / 13OKT11
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 Ebola Is an Inequality Crisis
In the past few months, the world has witnessed the worst outbreak of Ebola since
the disease was first identified in 1976 — it has already claimed the
lives of more than 3,400 people. But while the first cases in the U.S.
and Spain have stirred fears over the past week, we don’t need to fear
an unstoppable epidemic in developed countries. As World Bank President
Jim Yong Kim aptly put it in a piece for the Huffington Post:
The knowledge and infrastructure to treat the sick and contain the virus exists in high- and middle-income counties. However, over many years, we have failed to make these things accessible to low-income people in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. So now thousands of people in these countries are dying because, in the lottery of birth, they were born in the wrong place.
Dr. Kim makes the crucial point here — the current Ebola outbreak is much more than a public health crisis — it is an inequality crisis. People
dying of Ebola in West Africa did not choose to be born in West Africa,
any more than I chose to be born in the United States or my wife chose
to be born in England. The scriptures remind us time and again of our
obligation to care for the widow, the orphan, and the sick. Accordingly,
it is clearly our duty as Christians to do everything we can for the
people suffering from this epidemic. Combatting the current outbreak is
important beyond saving lives in the short term; the World Bank
estimates that the economic cost in terms of lost growth that Ebola
could cause in West Africa could rise into the tens of billions of
dollars. Such a scenario would make inequality between this region and
the developed world even worse — making it that much more difficult for
nations like Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone to experience the
economic development that will be needed to reduce the likelihood and
severity of future epidemics.
 ON THE GODS POLITICS BLOGView latest articles from the God's Politics blog » The Strange Nostalgia of 'Left Behind'by Catherine Woodiwiss Left Behind starring Nicolas Cage hits theaters nationwide on Friday, Oct. 3. The film is based on the wildly popular book series and movies of the same title, in which God raptures believers and leaves unbelievers behind to learn how to follow Jesus and defeat the Antichrist. So how’s the film reboot? In Need of a Blessing by Joe Kay How often do we hear nice-sounding words that aren’t very heartfelt? You can sense that the person is saying something just to be nice. Maybe they’re just buttering you up. Maybe they’re just saying it as a courtesy our out of a sense of obligation. There’s a sort of insincerity to it. Make Way for the Female Antihero: TV Takes a Page from the Bible by Jenna Barnett Over the past several years, TV has become saturated with male antiheroes. Breaking Bad made a meth dealer Emmy gold, and Dexter garnered a cult following behind a sociopathic vigilante. But hey, boys will be boys. Girls will be girls, too, if we let them. Reviving the Sanctuary Movement by Kaeley McEvoy In Leviticus, God calls people of faith to remember that they once were strangers in a strange land, and they must welcome the stranger as an expression of covenant faithfulness. Across the country, congregations supporting the Sanctuary Movement are living out scripture by welcoming, loving, and protecting their neighbors. NEW! In the SojoStore
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Every Christian is an "undocumented foreigner"—in the world but not of it. Learn more about Strangers in the Land, a six-week devotional on immigration, the church, and the Bible. From the editors of Sojourners magazine.
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How to Save Each Other
The Good Lie is the story of some of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan — orphans of war, who walked hundreds of miles fleeing violence, only to spend a decade in a refugee camp before finally being resettled in America. But the film is much more than that. It is a story about the power of faith and regular people who do incredible things because there is no one else who can. It is the story of immigrants — a funny and heartbreaking insight into what it is like to be a stranger in America. And it's a story and performance made all the more real because the Sudanese characters are played by actors who were child refugees and child soldiers themselves. It stars Reese Witherspoon, whose character and role encapsulate so much of why this movie works. She's the headline draw for Warner Bros., but the movie is not about her. She helps the Lost Boys, but as is so often the case when we respond to God's call to care for our neighbor, they probably help her more. No one saves the day in this movie, but they all help save each other. READ THE FULL ARTICLE.
ON THE GODS POLITICS BLOGView latest articles from the God's Politics blog » And That is Grace... by Joe Kay Grace leads you to the source of grace. It reminds you that every day is another opportunity to be touched and changed by love in some way. A love that’s a gift, pure and simple, given without any condition whatsoever. 7 Ways I Would Do Christianity Differently by Stephen Mattson Faith is a journey, a Pilgrim’s Progress filled with mistakes, learning, humble interactions, and life-changing events. Here are a few things I would do differently if I could go back and start over. The Measure of a Christian by Juliet Vedral At the end of the day and — if we believe what we both claim to believe — into eternity, we are sisters first, through our shared faith in Christ. Our primary identity as Christians must be as children of God first. Period. Full stop. 'To Define is to Limit' by Erika Aldape When you put a label on someone, you classify and constrict them, which limits them from breaking out their true potential. For example, when we are constantly talked about as illegal aliens, we are given the image of harsh criminals. This image affects our self esteem and our confidence. |
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Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III is the featured speaker for the 2014 Lyman Beecher Lecture series, October 22-24. Come and witness The Blue Note Gospel: Preaching the Prophetic Blues in a Post Soul World.
Though most people living in the United States have
immigrant ancestry, our nation's immigration policy has not welcomed
strangers. Explore this topic with Sojourners' downloadable study guide.
The Sojourners Sustainers Circle – our community of
monthly donors – provides much-needed, reliable support for all areas of
our ministry. Join today at $10/month or more and receive a
complimentary subscription to Sojourners magazine and a copy of Jim’s
new book, The (Un)Common Good, the updated and revised paperback version
of On God’s Side.
Receive our Gandhi’s “7 Deadly Social Sins” poster with a one-year (11 issues) subscription to Sojourners magazine. To get this popular print, suitable for framing, subscribe now!
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 The NRA's Dangerous Theology
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said this as his response to the massacre of children at Sandy Hook elementary in Newtown, Conn.: “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” That statement is at the heart of the problem of gun violence in America today — not just because it is factually flawed, which of course it is, but also because it is morally mistaken, theologically dangerous, and religiously repugnant. The world is not full of good and bad people; that is not what our scriptures teach us. We are, as human beings, both good and bad. This is not only true of humanity as a whole, but we as individuals have both good and bad in us. When we are bad or isolated or angry or furious or vengeful or politically agitated or confused or lost or deranged or unhinged — and we have the ability to get and use weapons only designed to kill large numbers of people — our society is in great danger. As we have just seen again, when such destructive weapons are allowed to be used out of powerful emotion without restraint or rules, that is bad. In dangerous situations, we as parents cannot tell our children they are safe. We cannot, because they are not. After Sandy Hook many child psychologists were counseling parents like us (I have a 9-year-old and 14-year-old) to hold and love our children, tell them they were safe. We can and did hold and love them, but we cannot tell them they are safe. Not as long as such weapons are available to human beings when they are acting badly. When we are good, we want to protect our children — not by having more guns than the bad people, but by making sure guns aren’t the first available thing to people when they’re being bad. Being good is protecting people and our children from guns that are outside of the control of rules, regulations, and protections for the rest of us. Let me be personal and theological again, this time with Rev. Phil Jackson, a young pastor from Chicago who I talked with earlier this week. A young, dynamic street pastor, he told me that Chicago had 2,400 shootings in 2012 — 505 of them resulting in death. More than 100 of them were children from elementary to high school. Almost all of the murdered ones were people and children of color — African-American and Latino. That’s more gun deaths in Chicago than American troop deaths in Afghanistan last year. One city. Rev. Jackson thinks that God cares as much about murdered children of color in Chicago as God cares about murdered white children in Connecticut. But it seems that mostly the white children get our attention and break our hearts. He thinks those murdered black and brown kids also get God’s attention as much as murdered white kids. But he wonders why they don’t get ours. It’s morally mistaken and also religiously repugnant. Finally, what will make a difference this time? Only two things I can think of. First, is if people of faith respond differently just because they are people of faith — that our faith overcomes our politics here, and that gun owners and gun advocates who are people of faith will act in this situation as people of faith, distinctively and differently. Second, that we act differently as parents. What has hit us all so hard — what caused the president’s tears and my own on that day — was looking at all our own kids, feeling their own fragility. Parents across the spectrum, gun owners or not, must demand a new national conversation on guns. I was putting my 9-year-old to bed a few nights ago. He said, “Dad I heard you talking on the phone about guns and the press conference you’re talking at tomorrow. “ “What do you think about it Jack? What do you think about it Jack?” I asked him. And here’s what Jack said: “I think that they ought to let people who, like licensed hunters, have guns if they use them to hunt. And people who need guns — who need guns for their job like policemen and army. But I don’t think that we should just let anybody have any kind of gun and any kind of bullets that they want. That’s pretty crazy.” I agree with Jack. Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. His forthcoming book, On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned about Serving the Common Good, is set to release in April. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
 ON THE GODS POLITICS BLOGView latest articles from the God's Politics blog » Evangelical Leaders Launch 'I Was a Stranger' Immigration Campaign by Ivone GuillenOn Monday a group of prominent faith leaders belonging to the Evangelical Immigration Table gathered on a press call to launch largest evangelical mobilization effort for immigration reform known to date. Obama, Biden Announce Gun Violence Reduction Plan by Sandi Villarreal President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden announced a comprehensive plan to address gun violence in the wake of mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo. The plan includes calling on Congress to require universal background checks, restore a ban on military-style assault weapons and 10-round limit to magazines, and implement stronger punishment for gun trafficking. The plan also includes measures aimed at increasing school safety and access to mental health services. When Radical Welcome Gets Messy by Christian PiattWe've discerned that, first and foremost, our job is to help cultivate a spirit of radical openness and welcome. But what does this mean, and how do we even begin to change the makeup of an institution that has exited for more than five generations before us? Hearing the New Questions by Rev. Julian “J.Kwest” DeShazier As the Christmas season draws to a close, I am reminded of the star that directed the three wise men away from their homeland and into the foreign but welcome presence of baby Jesus. Perhaps this reminds us all that the Divine is constantly moving us into new territory, as stars of all sorts continue to illuminate our path and reset our orientation. The New Year is a wonderful time to search the skies again and see where God is leading us – to check the progress of Church, society, and self, and also see when a new course needs charting. Such a pause allows us to live in our prophetic selves. NEW! In the SojoStore
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 Religious Consistency and Hypocrisy: Election 2012
Religion is not, at its core, politically partisan. But too often religion becomes a political tool; we see that on both sides of the aisle. That does not mean people of faith shouldn’t have strong convictions or feelings about political issues or shouldn’t vote one way or another; or that there is a moral equivalency between the political parties and it doesn’t matter which way we vote. Elections are important, and people of faith should be voting as citizens and by their most basic values. But let’s be clear: On Nov. 6, neither a Republican nor Democratic victory will bring in the kingdom of God. Elections can sometimes, however, set a framework for what can or can’t be done for the things we believe in. And there are important differences between the candidates at every level up and down the ballots we will cast next week. But people of faith — and their leaders — should be more prophetic than partisan d In this election, I’ve heard a lot of talk about “biblical principles” or the importance of voting according to a “Christian worldview.” Unfortunately, those words are normally followed by talking points that sound a lot more like a party platform than words you could imagine Jesus speaking. The Sermon on the Mount, when read next to campaign speeches, reads as almost a direct refutation of everything politics values in our world today. Matthew 25 sounds like an example of what NOT to say if you want to run for elected office. With more than 2,000 verses in the Bible about poverty — and with freeing the poor and oppressed as central components of the gospel's “good news" — shouldn’t we consider how the election will affect the poor and oppressed? Or ask how we should treat the millions of undocumented immigrants among us, who clearly fit the biblical category of “the stranger?” In both cases, how we treat “the least of these,” Jesus says in the 25th chapter of Matthew, is how we treat him. Doesn’t our voting have something to do with that? Many of us Christians are “pro-life,” but aren’t the nearly 20,000 children around the world who die every day of utterly preventable hunger and disease just as much a “sanctity-of-life” issue as the approximately 3,000 abortions that occurred in our country today? A very prominent conservative Catholic lamented to me last week how his side mostly cares about children before they are born and the liberals care more about kids afterward. Where is the consistency here? And does the Bible only talk about sex and marriage, or also about social justice? Then there is the care of God’s creation, or the resolution of the world’s inevitable conflicts without the horrible failures and human costs of our endless wars. Aren’t Christians supposed to be peacemakers? We were reminded this week of the stark reality that while God created the physical world to be good, it is also dangerous. And our failure to be good stewards of that which God made is resulting in the increasing severity of storms and devastating changes in other weather patterns. Don’t all those issues involve biblical values too? It has been sad to see some prominent conservative evangelical leaders say that the biblical principles in this election really only concern abortion and gay marriage, and all other issues are negotiable. Such election-year pronouncements sound more like an attempt to baptize a political party than to think critically from a moral tradition. Our votes in elections are always about making imperfect choices, and no one’s eternal salvation is on the line by the decisions they make in the voting booth. I have been clear from the start of the Republican primary campaign that Mitt Romney’s Mormonism should not be a factor in this election. A candidate’s theology and religious doctrines should not be an issue. But his or her moral compass should be, and so should how their religious and moral convictions affect their policy decisions. The Mormonism of Republican Mitt Romney and Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid should not disqualify them for public office. To many, their faithful adherence to their religious tradition is a positive. But neither the National Council of Churches nor the National Association of Evangelicals, the World Council of Churches nor the World Evangelical Alliance have ever been willing to accept the Mormon Church into the traditional body of Christian churches. So why did some conservative religious leaders suddenly seem to change their own position on Mormonism once Romney won the Republican nomination, and scrubbed articles from their websites that described Mormonism as an unbiblical “cult?” Would they have made those theological shifts about another person's religion if that person was a Democrat? Are our concerns really about religion and biblical values, or do they just reflect our ideological political preferences? Christians can and will be voting in different ways in this election in response to different prudential judgments about how to best express their biblical values. But please, let us stop suggesting that "biblical values" only involve certain issues or can only be interpreted in one partisan way or another. This is not a one-way street. Those who are politically progressive need to ask themselves: have I been consistent with the values that I profess? On war — specifically the use of drones? Poverty? The environment? Do I make excuses for my candidate on the issues I care about just because I voted for him or her? It’s important to have a dose of humility and recognize that we all have the capacity to be inconsistent. But let’s not use that as an excuse to remain that way. Let people see our religious consistency on the issues, not our political hypocrisy at election time, by assigning ultimate biblical values to our different political choices. Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. His forthcoming book, On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn’t Learned about Serving the Common Good, is set to release in early 2013. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
If I Had a Million Dollars ... by Soong-Chan RahPlay along with me. If you had $1 million to spend to help stimulate the economy, what would you do? What would I do? + Click to continue What Is Left Unsaid in This Campaign by Daniel WeeksMuch has been said by politicians and the press in this campaign. In three presidential debates alone, we've heard the two contenders for our nation's highest office speak of tax cuts, deficits, jobs, and the middle class literally hundreds of times. But much has also been left unsaid. In those same presidential debates, poverty was hardly featured and the word "inequality"didn't appear at all. + Click to continue Pay Attention: An Afternoon with Billy Collins and Mary Oliver by Brandon HookWhat's the first thing you think of when you think poetry readings by a Poet Laureate and a Pullitzer Prize winner? Well, whatever it is, I'm sure you weren't thinking dogs. + Click to continue First Thoughts: Did God Cause Sandy? by Tripp HudginsIn the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, thoughts on natural disasters, the divine, and 'why bad things happen to good people.' + Click to continue On Scripture: How to Vote like a Christian by Eric BarretoWith election day looming, voting should be an easy affair: people of faith should vote for the candidates whose policies would most embody a love of God and neighbor. It seems so easy, but it isn't if we are honest with ourselves and gracious towards those who disagree with our political persuasions. No single party or candidate has a monopoly on loving God and neighbor. Moreover, people of passionate faith and commitment to the values Jesus commends in Mark 12:28-34 so often can't even agree on what these seemingly simple commandments mean. + Click to continue Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne: A Conversation About Politics by Shane ClaiborneThe question for me is not are we political, but how are we political? We need to be politically engaged, but peculiar in how we engage. Jesus and the early Christians had a marvelous political imagination. They turned all the presumptions and ideas of power and blessing upside down. + Click to continue | |||||||||
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Who Didn’t Win the Presidential Debate?
If you really know any poor people, you know that to be true. If you don’t, the first sentence of this post runs against the grain of many cultural assumptions in America that tend to blame people for being poor. On the eve of the first presidential debate, Sojourners premiered The Line — a film about the new faces of poverty in America. In this powerful documentary from award-winning filmmaker Linda Midgett, those popular judgmental assumptions against poor people are clearly and convincingly debunked. The Line, which I am asking everyone who reads this column to watch, deftly dismantles many stereotypes about poverty and shows why a growing number of Americans find themselves falling into it. The film does so by telling the personal stories of people who have fallen beneath “the line.” My 14-year-old son Luke watched the story of John: a banker who once made a six-figure salary, but who now finds himself a substitute teacher making $12,000 a year while trying to raise his three kids. John painfully talked about what it feels like to have to go to a food bank because he has no other viable choice. His story caused Luke to ask his mom after the film, “John said he got straight A’s in school, so could that happen to me?” My 9-year-old, Jack, was most impressed with James: a fellow who lost a blue-collar job after 23 years, and now — in his 50s — was working hard to be a successful busboy. My Mississippi-born friend Burns Strider said he identified most with Ronnie — a self-employed fisherman in coastal Louisiana whose family has been in the shrimping business for generations — who faces an uncertain future now that the shrimp have disappeared in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill that have devastated the ecosystem and the economy. And many in the hundreds-strong crowd that packed the Washington, D.C., theater where The Line premiered earlier this week were drawn to Sheila — a mother of three who, after lifting herself out of poverty and a poor, violent neighborhood in Chicago, tripped and fell down the steps of an “L” train stop and has fought against disabilities and health care costs ever since. Sheila attended the D.C. premiere and was a part of the panel discussion that followed the screening, along with the director, Linda Midgett, Adam Taylor from Bread for the World, and me. What also was true of each of the people profiled in the film is that falling into poverty made them feel alone. The line that most struck me was from Ronnie who, when speaking about himself and his wife, said, “We have no confidence in the future … and we worry about our kids.” After the presidential debate last night, I doubt if the growing numbers of poor people in America feel less alone. The political discussion today is only about who won the debate. But millions of people who are struggling financially (and otherwise) in America are not likely to feel that they did. Presidential candidates could make it clear to those who are experiencing very hard times that they will not be left alone. But that didn’t come across last night in the first presidential debate focused on domestic policy. The competing narratives between Obama and Romney about tax policies, health care, the role of government, their focus on the middle class, and their differing arguments for economic growth now are being polled and debated as pundits and wonks try to determine which candidate had the best performance and how it might affect the electoral numbers. But one thing is certain about last night: there was no clarifying discussion about what the policies Obama and Romney debated will mean for the Americans who are struggling the most. After watching The Line, what so many of us felt was a desire to reach out to the people who, with great candor and courage, swallowed their pride (and their privacy) and told their stories, revealing how hard their lives have become. Conservative, liberal, neither, or both — I believe many Americans would want to reach out to the people whose stories were told in The Line. Clearly, it is the mission of the church to tell and to show the millions of people who have fallen below the poverty line that they are not alone. Jesus clearly says in the Matthew 25 that how we treat them is how we treat him. I think we also want to live in a society that makes sure that people who are struggling with poverty are not left alone. That is the responsibility of all of us, and it is also part of the role of government. The presidential candidates could make those who are hurting the most feel like they are not alone anymore. But that didn’t happen last night. Journalists tell us at Sojourners that poverty is not a “sexy” issue in America — especially not at election time. Some told us that again on the day The Line premiered. We had hoped for perhaps 100 screenings of The Line around the country. By the time the film began rolling Tuesday night, we had nearly 1,700 screenings of the film scheduled across the country and around the globe — including nearly every state and continent, even as far away as Japan, New Zealand, and Australia. The tremendous response we are getting to this extraordinary film tells me that while poverty in America may not be a top issue for our journalists and our politicians, it most assuredly is for a growing number of people of all faith traditions and none, across denominational, political, and cultural lines. The stories in The Line explain why. See the film, share it, talk about it, and help make this poverty — a fundamental moral issue that impacts the health (and wealth) of the soul of our nation — a priority during this election season and beyond. Jim Wallis is CEO of Sojourners, and the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery and the forthcoming On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn't Learned about Serving the Common Good, which will be released in February 2013. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis or join him on Facebook HERE.
Nietzsche Dissects American Political Discourse by Sungyak Kim What if I told you that the political discourse in America has proven for decades what PSY's 'Gangnam Style' phenomenon has proven recently? What do I mean? It is simply this: people can indeed get tirelessly excited about something that sounds good without understanding its contents. Like every election year, 2012 seems to have its own particular set of buzzwords and slogans. From "the forgotten 47 percent" to "you did build that," those on the left and the right are each trying to infuse the political discourse with their own partisan lingo. But it's time somebody put a stop to the hype and asks the sensible question: "What is the real meaning behind all of this?" + Click to continue Words of Wisdom from The Donald: "Get Even" by Brandon HookIt seems like the Bible is the one piece of real estate Donald Trump is unfamiliar with. Or maybe he's just never read any of that "Jesus" stuff in the New Testament. Last Monday, the Donald told Liberty University students not to turn the other cheek but to "get even" with adversaries, particularly in business. + Click to continue Jim Wallis Faces Off With The Woman Behind Anti-Muslim NYC Subway Signs by Cathleen FalsaniMaybe you've heard the buzz... On Sunday, Sojourners' CEO Jim Wallis appeared on WABC-TV's Up Close news program in New York City to debate Pamela Geller of the Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America, who put up ads in NYC subway stations that read, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad." + Click to continue Ku Klux Clowns by Shane ClaiborneI started my Tennessee sabbatical with a story about three peace activists who recently shut down the Y12 bomb plant here in Oak Ridge with a stunning protest, armed only with a bible and flowers. I figure I'll end my sabbatical with another great story of East Tennessee mischief. + Click to continue Why Voting Matters by God's Politics Editor At its best, Christian faith provides a moral compass for advancing the common good. At worst, Christianity can be hijacked by partisan political agendas that divide and destroy. Sojourners encourages you to develop a robust and well-informed conscience around elections, measuring candidates and their platforms against Christian ethics and values. While we must be careful about translating scripture directly into public policy positions, there are principles and suggested approaches on a range of issues that can provide a critical framework to shape our perspective on public policy. + Click to continue The Big Something: When A Campaign Gets Personal by Carrie AdamsLast week, Pamela Geller of the Freedom Defense Initiative and Stop Islamization of America, put up ads in New York City subway stations that read, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad." Well, I think that's a problem. And Sojourners thinks that's a problem. + Click to continue |
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We Asked; They Answered: Obama, Romney on Poverty
Across the political and theological spectrum, the faith community is putting aside differences and taking up the biblical vocation of protecting the poor and bringing their stories and struggles to light. It’s because of this unprecedented unity around those whom Jesus called "the least of these" that the presidential candidates felt they had to respond. With a unified voice, a broad array of Christian leaders came together to challenge the presidential candidates to directly address the issue of poverty. That’s because, as you have heard, the poverty numbers reported yesterday by the Census Bureau are not just numbers for us—they are people we know, children that we have come to love, and families we have watched struggle so painfully. There is a growing consensus that poverty is Christian issue, and that it has always been—one of our most traditional values issues. There are a lot of issues Christians should care about and a lot of different thoughts on the best ways to express that, but when casting a ballot every Christian should have “the least of these” on their minds. That is why we stood side by side yesterday at the National Press Club — leaders from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, the National Council of Churches, black and Hispanic churches, the Salvation Army, Bread for the World, and Sojourners, all asking that the presidential candidates address the economic hardships and hopelessness felt by far too many of our brothers and sisters. The biblical prophets clearly say that a nation’s righteousness is determined by how it treats its poor and vulnerable. And Jesus could not be more clear in Matthew 25: the ways that we treat the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the homeless, the sick, the prisoner — all those left out and left behind—is the way we treat him. How much we love him will be demonstrated in how we treat them. And, we pointed out, that Gospel text is addressed not only to individual followers of Christ, but also to the “nations," which will also be held accountable for how they treat the poor. And as we said today, the new numbers on poverty released yesterday by the Census Bureau leave us with a very poor “Matthew 25 scorecard.” Therefore, as the faith leaders said today, we have no choice but to respond when we learn that so many of our brothers and sisters are living in poverty. It makes these presidential candidate videos ones that every Christian should watch before they vote. We asked the candidates, what will you do to address the highest numbers of people in poverty in America in almost 50 years—numbers that we learned today are still growing? We believe these messages from the presidential candidates should lift the issues of poverty into the national debate in this election season. We invite members of the press to watch these videos and to question these candidates even further about their visions and policy choices for overcoming poverty. The poverty numbers that came out yesterday require responsible journalists to make the question of poverty an important part of this election year discussion. After three consecutive years of increases, we now have 46 million people in our country, or 15 percent of the population, living in poverty. While, thankfully, there was not a significant increase this year, the data also reveal that income inequality continues to rise. With the highest poverty numbers in almost 50 years, we intend to hold these candidates accountable in this campaign and after the election for the commitments they both make here today. There is some good news; many of the social safety net programs in place are doing just what they are intended to do and helping keep families out of poverty. In 2011, Social Security kept 21.4 million people out of poverty, including 14.5 million seniors, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) kept 3.9 million people out of poverty, the Earned Income Tax Credit kept 5.7 million people out of poverty, and unemployment insurance another 2.3 million people. There are many things that will be necessary to reducing and overcoming poverty, as both of these videos suggest. But we need a new national commitment and a new strategy on poverty in America and around the world. We didn’t hear that kind of commitment or conversation at either convention and don’t hear poverty on the agenda for this election. That ends today, with this witness from faith leaders and these presidential videos. The faith community has asked both presidential nominees for a response and they have answered. So it’s time now to put poverty on the campaign agenda, from our local churches to our public forums to our presidential debates. So let me introduce these two videos for you to watch and share with this important statement: The Christian leaders who initiated the "Circle of Protection" asked the two major nominees for president to offer a brief video about how they would seek to overcome poverty as president. The Christian leaders express their thanks to both President Obama and Gov. Romney for their positive responses to this request. The leaders also wish to make clear that this effort in no way offers or implies an endorsement of either candidate or the proposals in their statements. Likewise, the participation of President Obama and Gov. Romney does not offer or imply an endorsement of the positions taken by the Circle of Protection or its members. So please, go HERE to watch, share, and respond. Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
Shane Claiborne: Of Slingshots, Plowshares, and Kitchen Hammers by Shane ClaiborneIn the predawn hours of July 28, three unarmed peace activists entered the Y-12 nuclear plant and, over a matter of hours, made their unprecedented way through the layers of security to the very heart of the facility, where they performed a prayerful service, hung "crime-scene" tape and poured human blood as a symbol of the violence of nuclear weapons. One of the intruders was an 82-year-old nun who is now an international celebrity. It's a contemporary story of David and Goliath, the shepherd boy who took on a giant with nothing but a slingshot. + Click to continue Eleven Songs in Memory of Sept. 11, 2001 by Cathleen FalsaniEleven songs in memory of 9/11 from Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Suzanne Vega, Moby and Sinead O'Connor, Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, Leonard Cohen, Tori Amos, John Hiatt, U2, and Hunter Parrish (from 2012's Broadway revival of "Godspell"). + Click to continue Sometimes It Hurts; A Sermon on Healing by Nadia Bolz-WeberThis system we have where we all agree on who the real drunk is and who the real liar is and who the real emotionally needy person is and who is obviously disabled person works really well for us. That is, until Jesus shows up and ruins it. Because when Jesus showed up, I think it's interesting that he took that deaf man away from the THEY. He removes him from that system. He sticks his fingers in his ears and spits and touched his tongue and looks to heaven and the text says, he sighed. He looked to heaven and sighed. And the thing is, Jesus didn't then rebuke the man or his deafness. He didn't say, I cast out the demon of deafness. He just touched him, looked to heaven, sighed and said "BE OPEN." + Click to continue 6 Suggestions for Christians for Engaging in Politics by Justin FungEvery four years (or every two, if you pay attention to mid-terms; or all the time, if you're even more politically engaged), posts about politics pop up with increasing frequency on social media, eliciting often-furious back-and-forths that usually end up doing nothing more than reminding each side how right they are and how stupid the other side is. So I figured I'd try to offer a few suggestions on how we can engage with one another on matters of politics in healthy ways. + Click to continue A Season of Civility in Response to Campaign Incivility by Brian E. Konkol"In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve." – Alexis de Tocqueville With the Democratic and Republican national conventions behind us, and an increase of political campaigning in front of us, we recognize the timeliness of the above quotation from Alexis de Tocquville. In a democracy the citizens choose their government, thus we indeed receive the government we deserve. + Click to continue |
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Sikhs and Sacred Ground
***** Imagine the terror. You are in a temple, a safe, sacred place, preparing for a morning service. In the kitchen, you are busy cooking food for lunch, while others read scriptures and recite prayers. Friends begin to gather for the soon-to-start service. At the front door, you smile at the next man who enters. He does not smile back. Instead, he greets you with a hateful stare and bullets from his gun. Such was the scene Sunday at a Sikh gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wis., just south of Milwaukee, where a gunman, Wade Michael Page, killed six and critically injured three others before being shot down by law enforcement agents. As Page began his shooting spree, terrified worshippers sought shelter in bathrooms and prayer rooms. Rumors of a hostage situation surfaced, and those trapped inside asked loved ones outside not to text or call their cell phones, for fear that the phone ring might give away their hiding place. The first police officer to arrive on the scene stopped to tend to a victim outside the gurudwara. He looked up to find the shooter pointing his gun directly at him, and then took several bullets to his upper body. He waved the next set of officers into the temple, encouraging them to help others even as he bled. That magnanimity is a common theme among the stories of victims and survivors of the Wisconsin shootings. Amidst terror and confusion, Sikhs offered food and water to the growing crowd of police and news reporters outside the gurudwara as part of langar — the Sikh practice of feeding all visitors to the house of worship. We now know that Page was part of a neo-Nazi movement. But let us not take these moments to look into the heart of hate. May we instead shed light on a religious tradition of peace and generosity, the kind of generosity that inspired distraught worshippers to feed others just minutes after they had been brutally attacked. The Sikh community has been one of welcome and hospitality since its founding in India 500 years ago. With their belief in a supreme Creator and a deep respect for all human beings, Sikhs place strong emphasis on equality, religious freedom, human rights, and justice. Sikhs from India began immigrating to the United States in the late 19th century, and currently the Sikh popuation numbers about 314,000 in America and 30 million worldwide. Today, Sikhs are successful business people, active community members, and advocates for social justice. Their love for all humanity inspires the hospitality we witnessed so vividly outside that Oak Creek gurudwara, though it has not protected them from being the targets of numerous post-9/11 hate crimes. In living out that hospitality, Sikhs remind us of our own quintessentially American generosity. A core American idea is that we welcome contributions from all different groups and build cooperation between people of diverse backgrounds. It’s the theme of my new book, Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America. While today we hear news stories of division and hate, American history tells a different story. The shooting in Oak Creek reminds us that the forces of prejudice are loud. They sling bigoted slurs and occasionally bring 9mm guns to places of worship. But we are not a country of Wade Michael Pages. We are a country whose first president, George Washington, told a Jewish community leader that “The Government of the United States…gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” We are a country where Jane Addams welcomed Jewish and Catholic immigrants streaming in from Eastern Europe in the 19th century as citizens, not as strangers. We are a country where a young black preacher, Martin Luther King, Jr., learned nonviolence not only from Jesus Christ, but also from an Indian Hindu named Gandhi and from a Buddhist monk named Thich Nhat Hanh. And we must be a country where a new generation of leaders rises up to write the next chapter in the glorious story of American pluralism, or else we will forfeit the territory to those who would shoot at our neighbors while they worship. Already we see the forces of pluralism in action. Donation sites for families of the victims have sprung up, and supporters have updated their Facebook profiles with pictures saying “I Pledge Humanity.” Groups in Madison, Minneapolis, and Detroit have held vigils in solidarity with those affected by the shooting, and survivors of the recent shooting in Aurora, Colo., have reached out to Sikh victims via social media. As Sacred Ground discusses, there have been periods in American history when the staunch opponents of pluralism have won the battle. But they didn’t win the war, because irrepressible people of good faith refused to surrender their nation to such fear and hatred. Let us remember that we cannot cede this moment in our history to the forces of intolerance. And may we draw inspiration from our Sikh neighbors as we build a world where people of all backgrounds are honored for their unique contributions to America. Eboo Patel is founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international nonprofit that promotes interfaith cooperation. His blog, The Faith Divide, explores what drives faiths apart and what brings them together. His latest book is Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America. Hana Suckstorff, a communications associate for the Interfaith Youth Core, also contributed to this article.
Why I Prayed With the Sikh Community Last Night by Jon HuckinsAs we read and looked into the eyes of these victims, our hearts broke and we were transported into the life of those who often are stereotyped, persecuted, and isolated because of their adherence to a faith tradition that isn't "normal" to many of us in the West. It was tragic, angering, and painful... Friends, we don't compromise the integrity of our faith and convictions by engaging and standing with those of other faiths. In fact, it's quite the opposite. When we stand in solidarity with those of other faiths — especially in times of tragedy — we embody the very best of our faith, namely the pro-people heart of Jesus. Why Bill McKibben is the New Noah by Rose Marie BergerBill McKibben is a good guy. He's a Sunday school teacher. He's funny and a little shy. But he's got a big problem. He just got a job from God — and it's not an easy one. It seems to me that Bill's been tapped to be the new Noah to our faithless generation. It's his job to warn us that we have "grieved the Lord in his heart" and that the flood waters will rise again if we don't get back to working within our "original contract" and reverse climate change. Freedom from Nuclear Weapons by Duane ShankThe best way to commemorate Hiroshima and Nagasaki is to put teeth into the words "never again" by working to eliminate those weapons of mass destruction. And, as we do, we can also make the words of Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui our own: "I firmly believe that the demand for freedom from nuclear weapons will soon spread out from Hiroshima, encircle the globe, and lead us to genuine world peace." 'Abstinence-Only' Exposed by Frank SchaefferIn other words the evangelicals are using pop culture techniques just to make abstinence "sexy." At the heart of the campaigns that are supposedly about sex education is a belief that without a "new life in Christ" the life of abstinence is almost impossible to follow. Thus abstinence only programs such as True Love Waits, Silver Ring Thing, and the Pure Freedom are selling virginity as a sexy choice of personal affirmation using consumerist techniques that are promising "better sex, no, in fact "great sex" and perfect marriages if virginity is maintained as a "gift" for the prince or princess, God will lead you to as a reward for putting on that ring, signing a pledge, and putting off sex until marriage. Muslim Women Olympians: 'This Is Legacy' by Cathleen FalsaniDozens of Muslim women are competing at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London — several of them as the very first female athletes chosen (and allowed) to represent their countries in the Olympic games. These women are vanguards, shattering stereotypes, subverting cultural-religious mores, and creating a legacy that will benefit female Olympians of all creeds for years to come. Joplin Mosque Destroyed in Blaze; Second Fire This Summer by God's Politics EditorThe mosque's Imam said the blaze will not keep worshippers from their prayers. From the reports: "This should not stop us from serving God," said Imam Lahmuddin, the mosque's religious leader. "We still have to fulfill our obligation. We will do our prayer in other places. If we don't find a place, we will do our prayers in our home. We cannot miss any of the five prayers." Tips for Achieving an 'Almost Amish' Lifestyle by Nancy Sleeth Editor's Note: This post is a follow-up to yesterday's Ten Ways to Live "Almost Amish.' Author Nancy Sleeth offers tips for acheiving each of her principles for "almost Amish" living. | |||||||||||
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What is Post-Candidate Politics?
You may be wondering why we’re launching so early… it’s only April. A lot of voters, especially young ones, are sitting out of the elections entirely. With all the influence of big money and Super PACs, we need to make sure that Christians are the voice for poor and vulnerable people. That’s why for this election season, a group of young Sojourners Christians created a video to start a new kind of conversation. If you count yourself as one of the people who are disengaged, their challenge to you today is this: don’t lose hope. Don’t vote for a candidate; vote for the issue you care about. Watch the video today – and help us spread this video online.  Here is what Tim King, a young evangelical and our communications director, has to say about the campaign: For a lot of voters, President Barack Obama’s tenure hasn’t turned out quite as they hoped. On the other side, the presumptive GOP nominee, Gov. Mitt Romney, isn’t the candidate that many voters seem ready to believe in. Traditional political parties are in decline. In December 2011, Gallup reported that 45 percent of the U.S. population identified as politically independent. At the same time, the direction of our two parties is more and more influenced by political movements like the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. While there is an unprecedented level of money flowing into elections from wealthy donors and corporations, social media has democratized access to fellow voters. You can spend millions of dollars buying airtime on traditional TV stations—but it is entirely possible to craft a compelling message that will reach millions for a relatively small cost. As a young evangelical Christian, I’ve seen a lot of bad examples of how Christians engage politics. Wherever there is a lot of power, there are a lot of dangers. Seeing a lot of others get something wrong can make the task seem daunting but isn’t necessarily a good excuse not to try at all. A politically disillusioned electorate, a huge influx of money for attack ads, and historically poor leadership from religious and political figures is a challenge to our country’s democratic processes. The danger, especially for my generation, is to tune out from political and civic engagement entirely. The opportunity is post-candidate politics. The mistake that a lot of voters—and young people in particular—have made is to put our faith for social change in a very narrow definition of politics. Parties, personalities, and elections will never accomplish everything that we hope they will. Politics doesn’t begin and end at the voting booth. Politics is all the things we decided to do together. It includes, but is not limited to, the things the government does. That means that being a faithful citizen requires being both a local practitioner and a national advocate for justice. Volunteering, entrepreneurship, being a good neighbor, building strong families — are all ways to build communities and, in a sense, are political acts. Voting is important, not because a properly cast ballot will solve the world’s problems, but because it’s a voice for people and issues that we care about. Many young people have felt disconnected from “values” discussions because the values being promoted aren’t the ones that they hold. That’s why Sojourners worked with young Christians to produce this video that gives voice to a broader range of concerns. Politics, electorally and more broadly, is worth engaging. It might be frustrating to see the influence of money or a shallow focus on personality, but that won’t change unless we demand more from the system. Online modes of communication create the possibility of getting out a message that wouldn’t be heard otherwise. Help us spread this message. Share the video and start a discussion with your friends and families about the people and issues that motivate you. This November, vote for US. Chip in 5 dollars to help us out! If you contribute today to help us get this video out we’ll send you a free bumper sticker so that you can promote the issue you care about this election. Choose from: End Poverty 2012, Immigration Reform 2012, Creation Care 2012, or Wage Peace 2012. Tim King is Communications Director for Sojourners. Follow Tim on Twitter @TMKing.
Rachel is Weeping: Ending Racial Profiling in America by Lisa Sharon HarperThe following written testimony was submitted by Lisa Sharon Harper, on behalf of Sojourners, to be included in the April 17 U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights Hearing on "Ending Racial Profiling in America." We believe every human being is made in the image of God and therefore equally worthy of protection of human and civil rights under the law. Racial profiling not only threatens the psychological and emotional well-being of targeted communities. As demonstrated above, the practice can lead to death. Lessons from Caine’s Arcade: The Vital Joy of Making Things by Anna BroadwayBut maybe Caine's story strikes us because in him we see the embodiment of something we'd like to think the American people still are, but haven't seen in evidence much anymore. Creativity like his is part of the mythos of America, but we all know — even musician Jack White knows — that it's increasingly hard to find these days. Kids vs. Global Warming by Jack PalmerA lawsuit, which has been dubbed a 'David vs. Goliath battle,' sees a group of young adults taking on high-level government officials, states, energy companies and big businesses over their collective failure to adequately protect our planet for future generations. Anders Behring Breivik and Muslim-Christian Relations by Anne Marie RoderickWhen we look closely at our media in the west, at the social and political climate of our times, we have to acknowledge that we are actors in a society wrought with the same kind of fear and distrust for Muslims that led Breivik to commit his crime. Spirituality and Sexuality: Deconstructing Boundaries by Dani ScovilleI didn't expect that deconstructing my sexual boundaries in the name of faith would cause me to develop boundaries. But these new ones aren't oppressive, because they come from an understanding of myself. No one else came up with them but me. Now when the temptation to get a momentary intimacy fix is there, I'll have my own voice and story reminding me to not give in and wait for something rooted in love.
Top Stories: Can Young Evangelicals Move Beyond the Religious Right? The Washington Post This is why Sojourners has kicked off our “Voting for Us” campaign with this video. We think there is an opportunity to build a “post-candidate” paradigm for engaging this election. It’s an approach that starts with people and issues instead of personalities or parties. We hope to engage young Christians in issue-based advocacy but at the same time re-brand for the rest of the country what it looks like to be a Christian engaged in politics. Budgets Are Moral Documents Taunton Daily Gazette This week the nation funds our priorities as we pay our annual tax bill. “Our budget is a moral document and it is either going to reflect the best of who we are or the worst." This was so eloquently stated by the Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners. "Sojourners in the news" articles are the most recent news clippings that mention Sojourners in any way - whether favorably or unfavorably. Though we provide the text on our site for your convenience, we do not necessarily endorse the views of these articles or their source publications. |
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Crossing the Racial Divide
Many of us recognize that Trayvon’s untimely death is not an isolated incident. Racial profiling. Discrimination. Enmity. Suspicion. Intimidation. Fear. Hate. For far too many Americans, these are everyday realities. As Christians, we are called to fight injustice and work to heal the broken systems — and broken relationships — of the world. We act, with Jesus Christ, to bring about reconciliation — between people, people groups, communities; within (and between) organizations, institutions, and social systems. Jesus radically broke with the prevailing culture and paradigms of his day. He reached across social, cultural, religious, and ethnic boundaries. He built bridges, spanned the gap, and reconciled us to each other and to God. Too often, we — his Church, his bride, his hands, feet, and voice in the world — have failed to follow in the steps of Jesus. Rather than breaking down walls, we erect new ones or reinforce those that have begun to crumble. Trayvon's death is tragic, unjust, and an outrage. His parents' grief is unfathomable. Tragically, the Martins are only one example of how the sin of racial injustice lives on in our nation. Our faith compels us to not languish in grief, but respond with repentance, a repentance that not only acknowledges the wrong that has been done, but also works to heal the wounds and create a world where such injustices are much less likely to happen in the future. It is too late to bring Trayvon back, but it is not too late for the members of the Body of Christ to act in obedience to his call and become a people of shalom. To that end, for the next seven days Sojourners is offering Crossing the Racial Divide, a 52-page resource and discussion guide for churches and small groups, as a free download through our website. It is our hope and prayer that this four-session curriculum will be a blessing to your family and faith community, and challenge you to tackle head on issues of race and racism wherever you encounter them. In God's Kingdom, no 17 year old, regardless of race, is ever cut down by a bullet in the street. In God's Kingdom, no young person ever faces death before their time. But we live with the tension that the Kingdom is here but not yet. May that sacred tension, no matter how difficult, always compel us to deeper places — both in thought and action. To download a FREE digital copy of Crossing the Racial Divide, CLICK HERE. Want to go even deeper? Click HERE to purchase the more extensive hard copy of Crossing the Racial Divide for $7 through the Sojourners Store.
Beyond Denominations: Jesus' Prayer to Be 'Perfectly One' by Sandi VillarrealOne of the things that turns people off about church is infighting. Denominationalism. Closed communion. Growing up, my Southern Baptist church friends told me that my Catholic school friends were in desperate need of saving—it was my job to keep them from going to hell. Wait, what? There is bad theology, but there is plenty to go around—in every denomination. Nobody has everything right. So what does Jesus' prayer for us to be one look like? The Bouquet by Gordon C. StewartEvery Sunday morning Eliza would cut the wildflowers in her yard, arrange them into a beautiful bouquet and place them on the altar for worship. Now I get a drawing from eight-year- old Ruth — a younger version of the nonagenarian theologian, Eliza. "God doesn't love us as a flower but as a bouquet." The Delicate Art of Persuasion by Anna BroadwayAdding to the intensity of the discussions is that almost each of these controversies involves an effort to change something: the Ugandan geo-political scene; unethical manufacturing practices; ways of talking about religious experience; "Christian" expectations for women… The problem is that attempting change requires changing minds. White Christians Sleep While Young Black Men Die by Elizabeth RawlingsThen, in the middle of our nice black-man-is-president, post-racial dream, a young black man is killed for walking through a neighborhood in a hoodie carrying some Skittles… We wake up. We are sad, we are shocked, we are horrified. We call for the ousting and jailing and public shaming of all involved. Our eyes are getting heavy. All of this sadness and dismay about racism is tiring. We'd like to go back to sleep. Shane Claiborne: Barriers to Compassion in the City of Love by Shane ClaiborneIn the Bible, Jesus even goes so far as to say that when we feed the poor, the "least of these," we are feeding Christ himself. When Jesus speaks of the final judgment he says we will be asked by God, "When I was hungry did you feed me?" Can you imagine if our response was, "Sorry God, the city would not give us a permit?"
Top Stories: Media Coverage Of Evangelical Christians Ignores Blacks And Latinos The Seattle Medium Lisa Sharon Harper, author of the book “Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican or Democrat” and co-author of “Left, Right & Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics,” says the term “evangelical” has a meaning different than what is portrayed in the mainstream media. “The media would do well not to call [the religious right] evangelicals,” says Harper, also director of mobilizing for Sojourners, a Christian social justice organization in Washington. “They’re really thinking about a political bloc. They’re not thinking about theological evangelicals.” "Sojourners in the news" articles are the most recent news clippings that mention Sojourners in any way - whether favorably or unfavorably. Though we provide the text on our site for your convenience, we do not necessarily endorse the views of these articles or their source publications. |
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The Ryan Budget and Moral Cowardice
Christianity and most of the world’s faith traditions explicitly demand protection for the poor and the preservation of the lives and dignity of all. Well, the Chair of the House Budget Committee, Ryan, high-tails it down his Path, budget rolled in-hand, in the exact opposite direction from those moral commitments. Bob Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), concluded that the Ryan budget “is Robin Hood in reverse — on steroids. It would likely produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history and likely increase poverty and inequality more than any other budget in recent times (and possibly in the nation's history)." Any responsible budget plan requires a balanced approach that would both increase revenue and reduce spending. This proposal would cut taxes, merely hope for revenue, increase military spending, and slash most everything else that isn’t protected by large corporate interests. Ryan gives further tax cuts to the wealthy in a plan that would simultaneously increase the effective tax rates on low and moderate-income people. This completely fails to acknowledge that on our current course, well over half of our projected debt by 2019 has been caused by the Bush-era tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yes, we have a revenue problem. What you need to know about our federal budget is that about two-thirds of it is what’s called “mandatory spending.” Programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid mostly make up that part of the budget. The other half is “discretionary spending” and includes money for core defense spending, education, roads, scientific research, and other programs for low-income people. About half of all “discretionary spending” is spent on defense. Ryan claims that the budget is bold and makes tough choices, but it doesn’t. When it comes to the “mandatory spending” Ryan’s plan kicks any problems down the road a decade. Cost reductions — by turning Medicare into a voucher system — would start in 10 years and undermine the primary commitment of the program: guaranteed health coverage for senior citizens. When you look at the “discretionary spending” side, Ryan not only takes the idea of cutting military spending off the table, he significantly increases the core defense budget. While the plan doesn’t yet specify all of the additional “discretionary spending” cuts Ryan would like to see, the CBPP put it this way: If the Ryan plan were enacted, “by 2050, most of the federal government aside from Social Security, health care, and defense would cease to exist.” SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) — an effective program that helps millions of families survive their toughest days by making sure that, if nothing else, they have food on the table — would end up squeezed and then block granted. One of the reasons why SNAP works so well right now is that its funding has the flexibility to fluctuate up and down when there is a change in need. Block granting the program would send a fixed amount of money to states and take away one of the main reasons it works so well in the first place. Ryan, as a Catholic, has flagrantly disregarded the moral counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which released a statement on March 6 affirming the following: “Congress should base decisions on the federal budget on whether they protect or threaten human life and dignity, whether they put the needs of the hungry, the homeless and the unemployed first, and whether they reflect the shared responsibility of government and other institutions to promote the common good of all, especially workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in difficult economic times.” Not only does his budget fail to meet the basic teachings of Ryan’s religious tradition, the plan shows moral cowardice. I don’t know any world in which a “tough choice” is piling benefits on the already rich and powerful while asking people who are already struggling to pay for it. Though the vulnerable may not have Super PACs or gangs of lobbyists fighting for them, they do have us — people of faith. And our faith compels us to fight this immoral budget. We are committed to pray and fast and write letters and raise our voices in the public square in the hope that America’s conscience might be awakened from a sound, silent slumber. And that together we might recommit our nation to the task of preserving the lives and dignity of all — especially the least of these. Lisa Sharon Harper is the director of mobilizing at Sojourners. She is also co-author of Left, Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics and author of Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican ... or Democrat.
The American Way of Eating — Everyone Wants to Eat Well by Rachel StoneIn The American Way of Eating, Tracie McMillan goes undercover in farm fields, in the Wal-Mart produce department, and at Applebee's to explore common assumptions that food-movement types make about the way many Americans eat: that many of us are overweight and unhealthy because we just don't "care" enough about the quality of our food--with people who are poor "caring" the least. 'Blue Like Jazz': The Sojourners Interview by Christian PiattChristian Piatt sat down with the makers of Blue Like Jazz — Donald Miller, director Steve Taylor and lead actor Marshall Allman. The wide-ranging interview covers everything from John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and what Miller calls "dangerous theological ideas" to the astounding grace of God and peanut butter cups. Fascinating and funny, the conversation with the hearts and minds behind Blue Like Jazz is a humdinger. Remembering Pope Shenouda III: 'A Heart for Unity' by Wes Granberg-MichaelsonOne can hope that the outpouring of regard and respect for this Christian leader from throughout Egyptian society can be an occasion for reconciliation, easing the rising tensions and suffering of this ancient Christian community. As hundreds of thousands have gathered to pray and mourn during these days, Muslims have been offering them water and sandwiches. Clooney and Others Arrested at DC Protest (Video) by Sandi VillarrealActor George Clooney was arrested along with his father and several U.S. congressmen during a protest outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C. Friday morning. Clooney has been in Washington, D.C., much of last week advocating on behalf of Sudan--where he recently visited with Enough Project co-founder John Prendergast. He recorded his findings there, including the bombing of civilians in Sudan's Nuba Mountains. Clooney says Sudanese officials are blocking humanitarian aid to the region, effectively starving its people. Mike Daisey’s #Fauxpology and other Media-Survival Hashtags by Elizabeth Palmberg And, as we all know, Daisey is just the latest link in a long chain of non-apologizers. #circumpentance: Giving a vague approximation of repentance while sidestepping the real issue, often by misusing the word "if" or other rhetorical footwork. For example, Daisey's statement: "the audience of This American Life … if they feel misled or betrayed, I regret to them as well." (Related term, already in use: #fauxpology.) 'I'm on Food Stamps. Don't Hate Me For It." by Vicki JonesI'm not writing this to ask for support. I am so blessed to be able to make ends meet and continue my education. I am writing this because I'm tired of the hate. I'm tired of being embarrassed. And I'm tired of the ignorance. Unless you've lost everything, you cannot possibly understand what drives someone to accept food stamps. How hard it was for them. How they cried when they submitted the application. How they are made to feel ashamed for accepting help.
Top Stories: Why Liberty Needs Justice: A Response to the Tea Party-Occupy Film by Lisa Sharon Harper Christianity Today This is not a film about political pundits bantering back and forth exchanging policy talking points. Instead, it's about two very ordinary people, their deep faith in Jesus, and how that faith is leading them to engage two of the most consequential grassroots movements of our time. These movements have one beautiful thing in common: they are groundswells of ordinary citizens reengaging their democratic civic duty, letting their messages be heard and considered in the public square. "Sojourners in the news" articles are the most recent news clippings that mention Sojourners in any way - whether favorably or unfavorably. Though we provide the text on our site for your convenience, we do not necessarily endorse the views of these articles or their source publications. |
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I sat down for a pleasant meal in the home of two great friends — one of them a white evangelical faith leader deeply committed to social justice. Well into the evening’s conversation — when we’d dropped all our pretenses and our exchanges moved well past mealtime niceties — one friend asked me something that caught me entirely off guard. “Do you think Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Christian?” he said. I was dumbstruck. I had never heard anyone actually ask that question before. “Yes,” I replied. “What would make you doubt that?” As he explained, it became clear: My friend wasn’t sure whether Dr. King was a Christian because King’s Christianity didn’t look like my friend’s Christianity. Dr. King valued justice. My friend valued justice. King professed personal faith in Jesus. My friend professed personal faith in Jesus. And yet my friend still was hung up about King’s faith because, to his eye, King didn’t seem interested in “evangelism” as my friend defined it — i.e. the practice of calling sinners into personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross is payment for our sins. Twentieth-century white evangelical understanding of the Gospel guided (and in many ways defined) my friend’s Christian walk. Therein lies the disconnect between his Christian faith and Dr. King’s. According to sociologists Michael Emerson and Christian Smith (authors of Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America), only one thing separates white and black evangelicals, but it makes all the difference in the world: Vastly different experiences of structural and systemic oppression. Black evangelicals have a long history of interaction with oppressive systems and structures. When African Americans read the Bible, they see the more than 2,000 passages of scripture about God’s hatred for poverty and oppression. They see God’s desire for systems and structures to be blessings to all of humanity — not a curse to some and a blessing for others. And they see Jesus’ own declaration that he had come to preach good news to the poor, which, by the way, is decidedly not a reference to the “spiritually impoverished.” Jesus meant that he had come to preach good news (of liberation, freedom, and new life) to people trapped in material poverty. White evangelicals generally do not experience such systemic oppression. According to Emerson and Smith, most white evangelicals don’t prioritize or even see the thousands of references in the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament about structural and systemic injustice. Accordingly, the Gospel — and by extension their evangelism — is about only one thing: Personal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for their sins, and a personal relationship with him. Black evangelicals also have personal faith that Jesus’ death paid for their sins, but their Gospel doesn’t end with personal (and individual) salvation. For Dr. King and Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer and the Rev. John Perkins and Nelson Mandela and for hundreds of thousands of Black Christians around the world and for me, the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection were for the redemption of both individual souls and the redemption of whole societies. Franklin Graham’s father, Dr. Billy Graham, didn’t always understand this, either. The elder Graham’s revivals began as segregated affairs, but the Supreme Court’s desegregation ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) agitated his conscience and he quickly course corrected. From that point on, Billy Graham never again held a segregated revival. What’s more, in 1957 Dr. Graham invited Dr. King, to share his pulpit for a 16-week revival in New York City. For Billy Graham, Martin King was a Christian. In the last decade or so, a new generation of white evangelicals — such as my friends Shane Claiborne, Kelly Moltzen, Josh Harper, and others — have intentionally displaced themselves, moving into impoverished communities of color in order to gain the experience their parents and grandparents lacked. As a result, their white evangelical eyes are open. They see those 2,000 scriptures about poverty and injustice. And this new generation of white evangelicals is committed to fight systemic and structural justice because of the Gospel. So, it grieved me to hear Franklin Graham’s doubt-filled commentary on President Obama’s faith. Obama has described in his own words (and quite publicly) how he has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, how as a young community organizer in Chicago in the late ‘80s he walked down the aisle of a church during an altar call to make a public profession of that faith — a practice developed by one of the greatest American evangelists of all time, Charles Finney. The president has clearly professed his belief that Jesus died on the cross as payment for his sins. And Obama repeatedly invokes the words of Jesus that guide his world view: “Just as you did to the least of these, you did to me.” (Matthew 25:40) For a moment, Franklin Graham’s cynicism tested my own faith. I wondered if he had any idea that, when he questioned the president’s faith, it felt as if he were questioning my faith. I wanted to know if the transformational power of Jesus’ death and resurrection, which is powerful enough to save our souls also could open Franklin’s eyes and soften his heart to the world and experience of his black brothers and sisters. Repentance is sweet, not only for the sinner, but also for the world. It reminds us all of what is right; what is good; what is true. Franklin Graham apologized for his comments and repented this week. This public discussion is now a lesson for us all. I have an abiding hope that, just maybe, the power of Jesus’ resurrection is powerful enough even to save the church. Lisa Sharon Harper is the Director of Mobilizing at Sojourners. She is also co-author of Left, Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics and author of Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican ... or Democrat.
Lost in Translation: Eugene Peterson and His 'Message' by Cathleen FalsaniDuring the two-day Q Practices gathering in New York City this week, Peterson talked about the epic translation project he says he still can't believe he actually managed to complete. "I didn't feel it was anything special when I was doing it," Peterson said. "I can't believe I did this. Reading it now I think, 'How did I do this?' It truly was a work of the Holy Spirit." + Click to continue Mormons, GOP Didn’t Always Get Along So Well by Thomas BurrAs Mitt Romney presses his bid for the Republican nomination for president, many Americans don't realize how his Mormon faith played an important role as foil in the early days of the GOP — and how its first candidates catapulted to power in part by whipping up anti-Mormon sentiments. + Click to continue Christopher Hitchens, Diana Butler Bass and the Third Great Awakening by Christian PiattThe explicit question I get asked, time and again, is "How do we better serve younger people?" And if the question really ended there, we could have a pretty productive conversation. But there's an implied subtext in most cases that we have to tease out, and often times, the church isn't even willing to admit that this footnote is married to their question. So although the words above are what are spoken, here's what they really want to know: "How do we better serve younger people (so that they will come back to our institutions and save them)?" + Click to continue How to Forget Paris by Todd Clayton"Falling in love is totally magical and beautiful and gives you this insane ability to operate on 4 hours of sleep a night for a long time," she said. "It chooses you and that gift is one of life's best ones. You have to choose it back, though." She paused, her voice cracking, and I knew she meant it. "At some point, you become more real to each other and the hard work sets in. So you try and try, and even then, sometimes it doesn't work out. And when that happens, you'll be ok." I was looking at her across the table. "Just let it be sad," she concluded. "Ironically, sadness will be your guide out of sadness." + Click to continue Experts Challenge Santorum’s Remarks Linking College to Faith Loss by Cathy Lynn GrossmanRepublican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum's claim that U.S. colleges drive young Christians out of church is facing scrutiny from Protestant and Catholic experts. Santorum told talk show host Glenn Beck late last week that "62 percent of kids who go into college with a faith commitment leave without it." He also has called President Obama a "snob" for wanting more Americans to attend college. + Click to continue
Top Stories: The Morning Buzz | February 29, 2012 Public Religion Research Institute At CNN, Tim King, the communications director of Sojourners, takes Rick Santorum to task for suggesting that young adults are leaving their churches because of college. Instead, King argues, churches are actively pushing young people away from religion. There is certainly evidence that many Millennials are unhappy with churches’ stances on gay and lesbian rights, science, sex, and other issues. Race and Beyond: Many Faiths, One Nation Center for American Progress This is precisely what President Obama believes. In a speech delivered at evangelical writer Jim Wallis’s “Call to Renewal” conference on June 26, 2006, then-Sen. Obama articulated a vision of how religious views and public policies can—and should—face citizen scrutiny. Toning Down the Religious Rhetoric Charlotte Observer More than 1,000 Christian pastors nationwide signed a "Faith Pledge" this month to "not attack the personal faith or religious beliefs of any candidate for office." That may be a good place to start. "Sojourners in the news" articles are the most recent news clippings that mention Sojourners in any way - whether favorably or unfavorably. Though we provide the text on our site for your convenience, we do not necessarily endorse the views of these articles or their source publications. | |||||||||||||||
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- Thomas Merton As my extended family gathered around the Thanksgiving dinner table before the market crash in 2008, conversation with cousins flowed about friends making big money with technology start-ups: "more, more; faster, faster; bigger, bigger." A hail of laughter greeted me when I quietly muttered that my ambition was, "poorer, poorer; slower, slower; smaller, smaller." When Sojourners started in 1970, I was 23 years old. Seven young seminary students pooled $100 each and used an old typesetter that we rented for $25 a night above a noisy bar to print 20,000 copies of the first Post-American. We took the bundles in our trucks and cars to student unions in college campuses across the country, and began collecting subscriptions in a shoebox kept in one of our rooms. For more than a decade we lived with a common economic pot and allowed ourselves $5 a month for personal spending. The highest-paid staff person was a young woman from a neighborhood family who wanted an evening cleaning job. We worshiped together twice a week and opened our homes to our neighbors. When our first son was born, we brought him home to a row house in Columbia Heights where we were living with 18 other people – including an African-American family and a Lakota couple with some of their extended family from the reservation in South Dakota. You had to be a bit crazy to be in the early community. And yes, we were poor. And we were small. We tried to slow down. I tacked to my office door Thomas Merton’s warning to social activists about the violence of overwork: "To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects ... is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism ... kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful."To stay alive, we needed prophet, pastor, and monk. On our best days these three energies were at least on speaking terms with each other. But like every other community that I know, most of the time we majored in one, minored in a second, and had a hard time with the third. For us, the outer journey of prophetic ministry was our major. The journey together in community was our minor. And the inner journey was our blind spot. We did not know how to be silent, or still, or slow. And so, like most young communities, we often could not see our own inner contradictions and arrogance, our own excesses and extremes. Now, 40 years later, Sojourners has grown up. We are not poor, or small, or slow. We have a large budget with many full time staff. For better or worse, Sojourners has become an "institution" with the necessities of policies, procedures, protocols, precedents, and concerns about hiring and firing, supervision and management, promotions and salaries, lawsuits and litigation. Some might say Sojourners is now a "success." We certainly have a bigger public microphone than we did in the past, and the message of faith-in-action that we have been pushing for 40 years seems to be taking root. It all boils down to this: Poorer, slower, smaller may be necessary for the inner journey, but it is not a very good business plan. In Falling Upward, Richard Rohr talks about the journey of descent that characterizes “second-half-of-life” spirituality. He reminds us that institutions by nature are "first-half-of-life structures" that "must and will be concerned with identity, boundaries, self-maintenance, self-perpetuation and self-congratulation." He goes on to caution against false expectations: "Don’t expect or demand from groups what they usually cannot give. Doing so will make you needlessly angry and reactionary."In Bill Plotkin’s model of the eight stages of human development in Nature and the Human Soul, institutions can, at most, be stage four, which in his view is still an adolescent level. In his opinion, only 15 percent of Americans have crossed into mature, initiated adulthood, and in general we are stuck in a pathological-adolescent culture that lacks the wisdom of initiated men and women elders. An institution’s job is to encase the renewal insight in a preserving shell that can carry the renewal seed to a future generation — and not to die to their organizational identity, which is required to begin Plotkin's stage five. If we are lucky, we outgrow the organizations that we ourselves give birth to and become "joyfully disillusioned" with the very institutions that we help to create. And if we are wise, some of us will grow by staying within the very organizations that we ourselves have outgrown. The tension of this seeming contradiction is the transformational stew of new possibilities, both for the individual who stays and for the organization. We should not expect the institution to be more that it can be. In some ways we no longer "believe" in the organization, but we do pin our hopes to the renewal energy that birthed it, and keep letting that spirit renew us. Then we can stand in the midst of organizational disappointments and betrayals, of silliness and pettiness. Broken dreams and relationships do not need to destroy us. Instead, with consciously applied inner work, they can become small doors that lead to greater wholeness. It takes a contemplative mind to see one’s own inner contradictions, the failures and inherent betrayals within our own lives and the institutions that we help to create. Those who take this journey of descent into their own sacred wound understand that what is flawed in them is somehow intimately connected to the unique gift that they have to offer to a broken world. Shadow work becomes a necessary spiritual discipline. Seeing in themselves what they dislike in the other, they learn to be gentle and kind. They delight in vulnerability and weakness, and believe that the wisdom that comes from their mistakes and failures is worth passing on to younger communities and movements. Bob Sabath is Director of Web and Digital Technology and one of the founders of Sojourners. He now lives with his wife Jackie at the Rolling Ridge Study Retreat Community in West Virginia, where he offers spiritual direction and wilderness retreats. He delights in teaching his grandchildren to introduce him as: “my grandpa: he can do everything – except the one thing necessary.” Bob wants everyone to know that he is still a mess, but at least he knows it. Editor’s Note: These reflections were birthed by a three-day desert journey in Arizona where Bob lived with Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem, “The Man Watching.” You can read the poem and listen to his son Peter’s musical rendition HERE. Further Resources:
'This is the Life': The Lost Episode by Caroline LangstonWhen I was growing up, my family did not, with any regularity, go to church. That's a common story these days, but it was downright odd when I was growing up in Mississippi in the 1970s. "What church do you go to?" was an obvious and inevitable question, and whatever answer you provided was as encoded with advance meaning as the very color of your skin. + Click to continue The Lin-carnation of Tim Tebow? by Joshua WitchgerHere we have two athletes actively engaged in a faith community and unafraid to share that part of themselves with the public. But Lin's fellow congregants are taking his fame in a way that differs from Tebow's faithful fans. In that same New York Times piece, one 30-year-old man from The River points to his infant child and says, "I think for [my child] seeing [Lin] play will be different from me growing up and not seeing anybody that looked like me play." + Click to continue Chocolate in the Baptismal Font: Things that Happen When Women Are Ordained by Cathleen FalsaniWhile I'm fairly certain Martin Luther was not referring either to women priests nor chocolate fountains when he famously entreated his nervous friend Philip Melanchthon to loosen up a bit, I believe his words are apropos to this would-be doctrinal donnybrook: If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. + Click to continue The War on Religion is Bad for Religion by Tim KingThe careless use of the word "war" has set up enemy versus enemy in a battle to the death when there could be allies (even if tenuous ones) working towards a compromise. Instead, we have taken our eyes off of other pressing issues of religious liberty and done a disservice to the true definition of religion at the same time. + Click to continue Sermon on Jesus’ Dream Team: Rank Fishermen, Demoniacs and Sick Old Ladies by Nadia Bolz-WeberThis is why the next part of the text is so great. It says that evening they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. The next verse literally says this: the whole city was gathered around the door. There is no separate category of people called the sick and possessed. Jesus knew this. Some people just hide their sickness more than others and as human beings we prefer to have certain people be the identified problems so that we can look healthy or sane or good. But Jesus shook that etch a sketch. + Click to continue
Top Stories: Iowans Sign Pledge Not to Abuse Faith During Political Campaigns The Des Moines Register Twenty-three Iowans are among more than 1,000 religious people nationwide who have signed a “Faith and Election pledge,” which says they won’t abuse faith this election season. The pledge was developed in the wake of attacks on former Massaschusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith and the recent condemnation of President Barack Obama for quoting scripture at the National Prayer Breakfast, organizers said. The pledge is sponsored by Sojourners, based in Washington, D.C., which is a national network of Christians concerned about social justice issues. Analysis: Obama Contraceptive Mandate Has a Price The Associated Press In a much-quoted 2006 speech at the Call to Renewal conference, organized by the evangelical anti-poverty group Sojourners, Obama said secular Americans were wrong to ask churchgoers to "leave their religion at the door before entering the public square." But he also said religious groups must recognize "ground rules for collaboration" and the importance of church-state separation. Obama reaffirmed the importance of religion just last week in a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. 100,000 Lost Girls Utne Reader “As many as 100,000 girls are trafficked as sex slaves within the U.S.,” reports Sojourners, a magazine devoted to social justice. And the average age of entry into child prostitution or pornography? Between 12 and 14 years old. "Sojourners in the news" articles are the most recent news clippings that mention Sojourners in any way - whether favorably or unfavorably. Though we provide the text on our site for your convenience, we do not necessarily endorse the views of these articles or their source publications. | |||||||||||||||
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+ Sign up to receive "Verse and Voice" - our daily quote and Bible verse e-mail Time to Rebuild our Foundations
Here is what I thought Barack Obama should have said in his inaugural address. My fellow Americans, We are enduring a financial crisis that has created a great economic recession with much suffering for many, and with more to come. And there is an even deeper problem we face: For decades we have neglected the foundational infrastructures of this nation, both physical and moral. Our roads, bridges, schools, transportations systems, energy grids, and even the structures of our families and communities are all in disrepair. So, let us use the painful reality of this economic crisis as the opportunity to rebuild America, to repair our economic and social life for our children and their children. From the renovation of our educational buildings, classrooms, and systems to the building of a new grid for a future of clean energy, to rebuilding the fundamentally important role of fatherhood in our families, we will strengthen our foundations as a nation. We are going to put America back to work with the good work that that we must now do. It won’t be easy or quick. But, as your president, I will focus my primary energy on putting Americans back to work in constructing America’s future. And I will report to you on our progress every month.After two years in office, President Obama has finally begun to clearly say and do that. His jobs bill, including a national infrastructure bank, is the right course now. And while it should have come much sooner and be much bigger, it is an important step in the right direction. I believe that there is a basic human dignity inherent in work. In fact, the Bible even makes special provisions to provide jobs for those who otherwise wouldn’t have one. But, when it comes to the messy legislative process, no one can claim God’s special favor on a particular bill. It is, however, appropriate to discuss what kind of moral principles legislation should try to promote. In St. Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians, he writes, “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat." Paul goes on to warn about those who are idle and the negative effect they can have on a community. It was essential that every person work for their own well-being and for the health of the entire community. Hard work was praised by early Christians, but so was ensuring that every person was provided for. Acts 2 says “All the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.” These passages could be pitted against one another. One side argues for strict capitalist principles in which the lazy starve. The other models a communal society that shares and redistributes private property. But understood properly, they actually work together. Those who can work should work. Those who need work should be helped to find it. Those who can’t work should be provided for. I would argue that the first government work program was seen in ancient Israel. It was instituted by what are called “gleaning” laws. The laws required farmers not to harvest the edges of their field, and if any wheat or grain fell to the earth in the process of harvesting, it was to be left there. This allowed those who were poor or without farm land of their own to come and collect food. These laws respected private property, but still required a portion to be set aside in a way that would allow other people to provide for themselves. What would it look like if we applied such principles today? I like Obama’s American Jobs Act. It is a plan that could prevent up to 280,000 teacher lay-offs and modernize 35,000 schools. It would expand high-speed Internet access to build and broaden our technological infrastructure as well as invest in our current infrastructure that is crumbling. It also would give tax incentives to businesses for hiring veterans and the long-term unemployed, provide job opportunities for low-income youth and adults, and extend unemployment insurance for those who still can’t find work. These are all good ideas. Obama's jobs bill would help those who want to work get to work, and investing in our children’s future and basic infrastructure would pay back dividends for years to come. That’s exactly the right direction at a time of economic crisis. Estimates for job creation vary substantially, but some independent economists estimate the bill would create between 1.3 and 1.8 million jobs. Others at least say it would increase economic growth and forestall further recession at a still dangerous time. The scriptures also speak to the importance of people benefitting from their own work. Three-quarters of those living under the poverty line in our country already have jobs.They just aren’t jobs that allow them to meet all of their own and their family’s needs. People are working and yet are still going hungry. This is why nutrition assistance programs are so important, as are work supplements such as the earned income tax credit. While God cannot be said to support a particular piece of legislation, it is imperative that we ask how our moral values influence policy decisions and priorities. The country’s major religious traditions have significant areas of disagreement, but one area that unites them all is concern about inequality. A survey released this week by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that majorities in every major religious category -- as well as the religiously unaffiliated -- all believe that the country would be better off if the distribution of wealth was more equal. Putting Americans back to work is essential to reducing poverty and addressing inequality, and it’s a top concern among people of faith in our country. The president has put forward a plan. The Republicans have offered no alternative except for their standard mantra about cutting taxes and regulations, which independent analysts say will not create jobs in the near term. It is simply not enough to just repeat ideology at a critical time like this. Obstructionism may work politically, but it won’t put Americans back to work. Concrete action must be taken, and we need to call for our political leaders to find common-ground solutions to create jobs. No plan is perfect, but inaction is no longer acceptable. Work and dignity are Christian values for the common good, and it is time for both political parties to support them. Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. He blogs at www.godspolitics.com. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
Woody Allen and His Evangelical Fan Base (Yes, Really.) by Cathleen FalsaniAnd not just any evangelicals, mind you... Both Chuck Colson and Richard Land are such diehard fans that they can -- and did, during conversations with Boorstein -- quote lines from Allen's movies. + Click to continue Radical Economic Justice: Jesus Forgave Sins and Debts by Jeremy JohnThe American Dream has always been at odds with itself, but our chosen economic system of the last 30 years has dragged America farther away from its common dream of equality. + Click to continue Light in the Darkness – An Interview with Daniel Walker, Author of God in a Brothel by James ColtenHe has more than 20 years experience as a criminal investigator, and has spent four years working exclusively in the international arena investigating the sexual exploitation and trafficking of women and children in more than a dozen countries -- including the United States. + Click to continue Justice Delayed? Death Penalty for California Salon Massacre May Mean Waiting a Generation by Maurice PossleyIf justice means putting Dekraai on a gurney and executing him, the victims, their families, and everyone else hoping for that outcome should face the cold hard fact that they are in for a long wait. + Click to continue Loaves and Fishes: Occupy Wall Street and Feeding the Two Thousand by Leeann CulbreathWord is, though, the food at Occupy Wall Street in New York City — where volunteers feed as many as 2,000 people each day — has actually been quite good, but challenges abound with sourcing, cooking, and distribution. + Click to continue From Jim Wallis to Billy Graham, on His 93rd Birthday: "Thank You!" by Jim WallisAll over the world, people are discussing Graham's influence and impact and remembering their own encounters with the world's leading evangelist. I, too, am thinking Billy Graham -- more specifically, I'm recalling with great gratitude and fondness the first time I met him. + Click to continue You Make Me Almost Want To Be a Christian by Jim WallisAfter I spoke Sunday and joined the circle around the White House, person after person came up to me to express their thanks or simply to talk. My favorite comment of the day came from a woman who quietly whispered in my ear, "You make me almost want to be a Christian." + Click to continue Not All Budget Cuts Are Created Equal by Tim KingOur spending on development and foreign assistance is not -- by any stretch of the facts or imagination -- our national debt. Cutting foreign aid programs will do little to get us out of debt, but would be a devastating setback in the fight against global, extreme poverty. + Click to continue Ohio Elections and Issue Three by Valerie Elberton DixonI am a great believer that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And people could get the medical treatment they needed without bankrupting their families. + Click to continue Just Back From Kabul by David CortrightIt was clear from what we heard that maintaining security requires more than deploying a large number of troops. It also requires proper governance, functioning courts, the rule of law, and an end to the impunity and abuse perpetrated by Afghan government officials and security forces. + Click to continue
Top Stories: Faith and Politics Morning Joe - MSNBC Jim Wallis and Richard Land discuss religion and the 2012 Presidential Election with the Morning Joe team. Obama Split Over Keystone Pipeline: Side With Christians, Environmentalists or Unions? The Christian Post“The non-conventional oil that this pipeline is designed to transport produces … three times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional crude oil,” said Rose Berger, Tar Sands Action organizer for progressive Christian group Sojourners. Their Brothers's KeepersThe EconomistOne explanation for this was offered last night at the National Press Club, which hosted a debate between two reverends, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and Jim Wallis of Sojourners. Both tipped the economy as the paramount issue for evangelicals in the 2012 election. Pastors' Call For More Faith Talk In 2012 Shows Common Ground ElusiveThe Washington PostProgressive leader Jim Wallis and Southern Baptist honcho Richard Land had organized the public “discussion” about faith and politics Nov. 2 because they said they’re both worried that our desperate desire to create more jobs is squeezing out talk of moral imperatives and religious values. "Sojourners in the news" articles are the most recent news clippings that mention Sojourners in any way - whether favorably or unfavorably. Though we provide the text on our site for your convenience, we do not necessarily endorse the views of these articles or their source publications. | |||||||||||||
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+ Sign up to receive "Verse and Voice" - our daily quote and Bible verse e-mail An Open Letter to the Occupiers from a Veteran Troublemaker
Throughout history, often it has been left to the youth of a society to do that, and you boldly have stepped into the role of the emerging generation, which sometimes means saying and doing what others only think. You have articulated, loudly and clearly, the internal monologue of a nation. Some of you have told me that you expected only to foment a short-lived protest and that you were as surprised by this "movement" as anyone else. Try to listen and learn from those whose feelings and participation you are evoking by encouraging more reflection than certainty. While there are some among us who may misunderstand your motives and message, know that you are an inspiration to many more. One of you told me in New York City last week, "This is not a protest, but a think tank." Another of your compatriots wanted me to understand that you are trying to build something in Liberty Square that you aspire to create for our global village -- a more cooperative society. Most telling to me was the answer to the first question I asked of the first person I talked to at the Wall Street demonstrations. I inquired of one of the non-leaders who helped lead the first days of Occupation what most drew him to get involved in the demonstration, and he replied, "I want to have children someday, and this is becoming a world not good for children." My 13- and 8-year-old boys came to mind when I heard his answer, and I felt thankful. It is precisely those deepest, most authentic feelings and motivations that should preoccupy you, rather than how best to form and communicate superficial political rhetoric. You are raising very basic questions about an economy that has become increasingly unfair, unstable, unsustainable, and unhappy for a growing number of people. Those same questions are being asked by many others at the bottom, the middle, and even some at the top of the economic pecking order. There are ethics to be named here, and the transition from the pseudo-ethic of endless growth to the moral ethics of sustainability is a conversation occurring even now in our nation’s business schools (if, perhaps, secreted inside the official curriculum). Keep pressing those values questions because they will move people more than a set of demands or policy suggestions. Those can and must come later. And try not to demonize those you view as opponents, as good people can get trapped in bad systems and we've seen a lot of that. Still, you are right for saying that we all must be held accountable -- both systems and the individuals within them. It is imperative that we hear that message right now. The new safe spaces you have created to ask fundamental questions, now in hundreds of locations around the country and the world, are helping to carve out fresh societal space to examine ourselves -- who we are, what we value most, and where we want to go from here. Instead of simply attacking the establishment "economists," you can become the citizen economists, like the young economics major I met at the Wall Street occupation who discussed with me new approaches for society’s investment and innovation. We desperately need new vision like hers to come up with alternative ways of performing essential functions. Keep asking what a just economy should look like and whom it should be for. They are noble questions. But you’d do well to avoid Utopian dreaming about things that will never happen. Look instead at how we could do things differently, more responsibly, more equitably, and yes, more democratically. Don’t be afraid to get practical and specific about how we can and must do things better than we have in recent years. One of our best moral economists, Amartya Sen, says that "being against the market is like being against conversation. It's a form of exchange." You have begun such a conversation about what markets could and should be. Keep talking. Even in forums where business and political leaders meet, they too are asking those questions and using terms like "a moral economy" as a way to interrogate our present and failed practices. I’ve been in such a gathering this week -- just days apart from visiting yours -- where the participants slept on featherbedding in five-star hotels rather than in pup tents on the sidewalk. And yet, surprisingly, they were asking many of the same questions you are. Keep driving both the moral and practical questions about the economics of our local and global households, for that is what the discipline was supposed to be about in the first place. I know you believe that the leadership on Wall Street, and Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues have all failed you. Indeed, they have failed us all. But while you feel betrayed by both our business and political leaders, don’t give up on leadership per se. We need innovative leadership now more than ever. And you are providing some of it. Think of stewards rather than masters of the universe as the model for leadership. And remember, non-violence is not just a critical tactic but a necessary commitment to moral and civil discourse that can awaken the best in all of us. There is much to be angry about, but channeling that energy into creative, non-violent action is the only way to prevent dangerous cynicism and nihilism that also can be a human response to the injustice and marginalization many people now feel. The anarchism of anger has never produced the change that the discipline and constructive program of non-violent movements has done again and again. I remember what it feels like to see your movement as a lead story on the evening news every night, and the adrenaline rush that being able to muster 10,000 people in two hours' time to march in protest against injustice and inhumanity can bring. I was in your shoes 40 years ago as a student leading demonstrations against the Vietnam War, racism, and nuclear proliferation. I would advise you to cultivate humility more than overconfidence or self indulgence. This really is not about you. It's about the marginalized masses, the signs of the times, and the profound yearning for lasting change. Take that larger narrative more seriously than you take yourselves. Finally, do not let go of your hope. Popular movements are the only force that truly brings about change in society. The established order is never as secure and impervious to change as those who preside over it believe it to be. Remember that re-action is never as powerful as re-construction. And whatever you may think of organized religion, please keep in mind that change requires spiritual as well as political resources, and that invariably any new economy will be accompanied by a new (or very old) spirituality. So I will say, may God bless you and keep you. May God be gracious to you and give you -– and all of us -- peace. Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. He blogs at www.godspolitics.com. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
Say NO to the Pipeline by Rose Marie Berger and Heather WilsonOn Oct. 7, the State Department held its final public hearings on the proposed U.S.-Canada pipeline, including testimony from various activists and faith leaders. A decision on the Keystone XL pipeline is expected from the Obama administration by the end of the year. Watch Sojourners Associate Editor Rose Marie Berger address hundreds gathered near Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. + Click to continue Welcome to the Poverty Thunderdome by Cathleen FalsaniEarlier this week, professional loudhailer Bill O'Reilly welcomed -- well, welcomed might be a bit generous -- radio and TV host Tavis Smiley and Princeton University professor Cornel West to his FoxNewsChannel show to yell at them....I mean, to interview the pair about poverty in America and the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. + Click to continue Alabama Immigration News Roundup by Jack PalmerAlabama Workers Skip Work to Protest Immigration Laws; Hey Alabama, Take A Hint From California; Alabama's immigration law prompts alarm; U.S. Seeks to Block Alabama Immigration Law; and many more reports. + Click to continue Of Traffic and Tee Times: The Grace of Unexpected Community by Caroline LangstonIf we didn't leave the house right then, we were never going to get to my seven-year-old son's inaugural golf lesson at the East Potomac Park course, where a Washington, DC-wide "golf and leadership skills" enrichment program was set to take place in thirty-five minutes. + Click to continue We Must Continue to Stand with Pastor Nadarkhani by Jack PalmerIt is often easy to feel that we, as Christians in the West, face persecution from "the secularization of society." But at this moment, we should be far more concerned about those whose physical lives are put in real danger each day as they preach the gospel. + Click to continue Adam Phillips answers, "What is an Evangelical?" by Adam PhillipsThis video is the latest installment in an ongoing series at God's Politics blog where we've asked leading clergy, writers, scholars, artists, activists and others who self-identify as "evangelical" to answer the question, "What is an Evangelical?" + Click to continue Report from the Global Christian Forum in Indonesia: Day Four, Healing Memories by God's Politics EditorAt day four of the Global Christian Forum, we heard the story of how those in the Lutheran World Federation this year publicly asked forgiveness from the Mennonite World Conference for wounds inflicted by their forbearers centuries ago. Unforgiven sin has a corrosive power, even over tens or hundreds of years. Forgiveness empowers and liberates those who have wronged one another. + Click to continue Cold, Broken or Grumbled, Every Hallelujah Counts by Caryn Dahlstrand RivadeneiraEven though my heartbreak and disappointment were quite different than Amy Dickinson's (my marriage, thank God, was not ending), I couldn't imagine wanting to tell a soul. And yet, Dickinson -- a.k.a. "Ask Amy," the syndicated columnist who filled Ann Landers's wise shoes -- laments that she could not share her grief. + Click to continue #OccupyWallStreet: Playing with Fire and Corraling the Golden Calf by Anne Marie RoderickIn times of hopelessness and long periods of waiting for things to get better, will we let ourselves be cast into the all-consuming fires of idolatry? Or, will we stand up against the false gods and catch the flame of the Spirit in our hearts and minds? Our nation may very well be on the threshold of a crucial change. Who will you be standing with? + Click to continue Jim Wallis on #OccupyWallStreet: "This Could Really Change Things" (Video) by Cathleen FalsaniLast week, Sojourners CEO, the Rev. Jim Wallis, visited with #OccupyWallStreet demonstrators in New York City. "As I listen to them, I recognize what I felt as a young student-activist in the late '60s and early '70s," Wallis said. "I just feel from them what I felt a long time ago, that we're part of something much bigger than us, much larger than us...The visceral feeling [here] is, 'This could really change things.'" + Click to continue #OccupyWallStreet: A Generation Finds Its Voice by Tim KingLike many of my contemporaries, I found the non-violent protests in Egypt that led to regime change earlier this year terribly inspiring. But, also like many in my generation, I never thought such a movement could happen here. + Click to continue Luci Shaw answers, "What is an Evangelical?" by Luci ShawI wonder if the Lord God abhors labels as much as I do. Somehow we human beings need to group and categorize people according to their behaviors and the beliefs that seem to define them. I keep remembering our perceptions are not God's; God looks at the heart and knows us from inside out. + Click to continue Moving South: Day Three at the Global Christian Forum in Indonesia by Wes Granberg-MichaelsonWhen I first saw the Atlas of World Christianity, I was stunned. This massive work charts the changes in world Christianity over the past century, from 1910 to 2010. Numerous charts, maps, and graphs, along with 64 interpretive essays by scholars from around the globe tell the dramatic story of how the center of Christianity has moved to the global South. + Click to continue Columbus Day, Wall Street, and Alabama Immigrants: "It’s About Power, Stupid" by Debra Dean MurphyIn 1992, political strategist James Carville coined the catchphrase that won Bill Clinton the presidency: "It's the economy, stupid." Clinton made good on his word to address the deficit and high unemployment and through both skill and luck, presided over unprecedented economic growth and prosperity. + Click to continue Naked Before the Lord: Unitarians Have More Fun by Cathleen FalsaniA dozen men from First Parish, ages 64 to 87, got naked before the Lord (and everyone else, for that matter), for a fundraising calendar called "Celebration 2012." + Click to continue Report from the Global Christian Forum in Indonesia: Day Two by Wes Granberg-MichaelsonThis is the second in a week-long series of reports from the Global Christian Forum in Manado, Indonesia filed by Wes Granberg-Michaelson, the former General Secretary of the Reformed Church in America. The Governor of North Sulawesi Province in Indonesia is a Christian, a unique feature in the country with the world's largest Muslim population. + Click to continue The Spiritual Side of #OccupyWallStreet by God's Politics EditorAs Occupy Wall Street protests head into a new week, religion journal writers are theorizing on the spiritual side of the movement. + Click to continue
Kevin Palau answers, "What is an Evangelical?"
Crime, Forgiveness and Retributive Justice: A God's Politics Interview with Naseem Rakha by Kevin PalauThese large-scale, citywide, proclamation evangelism events have been a focus of the Palau ministry for years and continue to be a main component of our ministry model. But in 2008, we decided to try something new. In addition to proclaiming the good news, we wanted to demonstrate it. We began to approach evangelism with a truly holistic, word and deed model. + Click to continue by Joshua WitchgerAn eye for an eye, a life for a life. This is one way -- based, some argue, in scripture and biblical ethics -- that proponents of capital punishment justify the death penalty. Naseem Rakha, author of The Crying Tree sees justice differently. In this interview, Rakha tells stories from death row and the kind profound healing she has witnessed first hand between victims and perpetrators, and speaks at length about the power of forgiveness in action. + Click to continue Afghanistan: A Decade of Life in the Midst of Conflict by Heather WilsonTen years ago, as the United States went to war with Afghanistan, I passionately yearned for a way I could be part of a long-term developmental and peaceful response to the conflict. In 2003 I was finally able to move to Kabul -- the place I had been studying and dreaming of for so long. + Click to continue Report from the Global Christian Forum in Manado, Indonesia. by Wes Granberg-MichaelsonThe most frequent question I was asked before flying to Manado, Indonesia was, "Why is the Global Christian Forum meeting there?" When the GCF committee began planning this second world gathering, we knew it should happen in the Global South, where Christianity is so resurgent. + Click to continue Deadlines and the Death Penalty: The Case of Corey R. Maples by Maurice PossleyThe ink was barely dry on the death certificate for Troy Davis, executed by the state of Georgia on Sept. 21, when the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in an Alabama death penalty case that, if not for its serious nature, feels like a trip through Alice's looking glass. The question before the court is this: Should the state of Alabama execute a man who lost an opportunity to file an appeal in his case because a deadline was missed -- because of a foul up in a law firm's mail room? + Click to continue Paradigm Shift by Christopher SofoloA million thoughts are flittering about in our minds at any given moment. When we allow ourselves to hone in on one thought at a time we can embark on our contemplative mission. In a state of mindfulness we can begin to recognize how our perceptions have been formed and how to awaken to a deeper reality and thus a deeper compassion. + Click to continue #OccupyWallStreet: Hand Gestures, Health Care and the Birth of a New Paradigm by Tim KingThroughout the day here at the #OccupyWallStreet mass demonstrations in New York's financial district, you can find small and often somber groups meeting. They have agendas, a facilitator, a time keeper, and someone to keep track of the "stack" -- the list of people waiting to make a point or ask a question. + Click to continue "The Arch" at 80: Saints Dance Among Us by Adam PhillipsThere is a magnificent, modern church mural at St. Gregory of Nyssa's Episcopal Church in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood that illustrates a kingdom of God that is expansive, welcoming, and full of dance. The only living saint dancing arm and arm with this beautiful, diverse, uncommon Great Cloud of Witnesses is the Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Anglican archbishop emeritus of South Africa. + Click to continue Lynne Hybels answers, "What is an Evangelical?" by Lynne HybelsI grew up in a form of Christianity in which "saving souls" was pretty much all that mattered. The God I discovered in that church was a harsh, demanding tyrant; I knew that if I wanted to earn God's love I would have to be very good, follow all the rules, and work very hard. Unfortunately, I worked a little too hard and eventually became utterly exhausted, seriously depressed, and physically sick. + Click to continue #Occupy D.C., October 6, 2011 by Cathleen FalsaniSee Sojourners' compilation of pictures and videos of Occupy D.C. + Click to continue #OccupyWallStreet: The Faith Factor by Cathleen FalsaniSlowly but surely, as media coverage of the #OccupyWallStreet demonstrations in New York and across the country continues to grow, attention is turning toward what the spiritual/religious/faith elements are to the larger political/social/cultural story. + Click to continue #OccupyWallStreet: Bruce Came From Vermont... by Tim KingMany protesters here have had some bad experiences with religion, but it's clear that they are genuinely open to seeing religion done differently. Another young woman summed it up nicely: "You work for a progressive Christian magazine? We could use a lot more of you!" + Click to continue Lisa Sharon Harper answers, "What is an Evangelical?" by Lisa Sharon HarperLisa Sharon Harper, Director of Mobilizing at Sojourners, answers "What is an evangelical?" + Click to continue #OccupyWallStreet: "The First Time I Slept on the Street Was Seven Years Ago..." by Tim KingThe first time I slept on the streets was seven years ago. Last night in New York City, I slept on the street again, near the corner of Cedar Street and Trinity Place in "Liberty Park" with the Occupy Wall Street protesters. + Click to continue
Top Stories: Sojourners Among Those Occupying Wall Street Christianity Today "People’s frustrations, hurts, and feelings of being betrayed by our nation’s politicians and economic leaders are clear. They want to be heard," Sojourners' president Jim Wallis said. Occupy Wall Street: Christians Debate if Jesus Would 'Occupy' With Protesters The Christian PostAdmitting that he does not know everything about the protesters and that some of them might not share his Christian views, Jim Wallis drew on the similarities between what he knew of the their goals and the goals of Christians who wish to enact social change through the teachings of Jesus. Jim Wallis Argues “Life Experience” Should Inform Biblical Views, Politics The Institute on Religion and Democracy“Being American is one of the worst bubbles” from which to develop a biblical perspective on politics, according to Jim Wallis. The CEO of the liberal Christian activist group called Sojourners explained that a correct interpretation of the Biblical politics is determined by life experiences. Steve Jobs and giving anonymously Reuters Blogs“The way Jesus talks about it is very appropriate for any wealthy celebrity or businesspeople who are actors on the world stage: ‘Don’t make a performance out of doing something for someone else,’ ” says Cathleen Falsani, the web editor and director of new media for Sojourners. John Wolf: Experts say voters losing faith in religious right Post TribuneJim Wallis of Sojourners magazine says, “Cut references to the poor out of the Bible and you will have a book of holes.” Faith in politics is desperately needed. The trouble is, we are not getting it from Micah, Amos, Isaiah or Matthew 25, but from the obscenely wealthy corporations who hoard wealth, but don’t hire the poor. Evangelical Thinkers Discuss Navigating God, Money and Country The Christian PostIn the book, Harper, who works for Sojourners, a progressive Christian journal, presents the main liberal argument. Innes, a political science professor at The King’s College, offers a more conservative approach. The joint work is aimed at helping Christians see ways in which Scripture can interact with today's culture and political landscape. How Would Jesus Vote? New Book Looks at Evangelical Faith and Politics The Christian PostHarper, Director of Mobilizing at Sojourners, and Innes, Associate Professor of Politics at The King's College, offer mostly different responses, but do agree that these are the type of conversations Christians should be having if they already are not. Occupy Wall Street Protesters 'Stand With Jesus,' Says Christian Leader The Christian PostPopular Christian leader Jim Wallis has joined the “Occupy Wall Street” movement Friday. Wallis, the CEO and President of Sojourners, a progressive Christian commentary, offered the perspective that “Occupy Wall Street” protestors are standing with Jesus. "Sojourners in the news" articles are the most recent news clippings that mention Sojourners in any way - whether favorably or unfavorably. Though we provide the text on our site for your convenience, we do not necessarily endorse the views of these articles or their source publications. | | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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